If you have the right combination of interests and skills, starting a garage door business can provide your career a serious lift. Find out how to get started, what you can expect to make when you do, and more.
How much do garage door businesses make?
Your local area and the demand for your services will largely determine what you make in the garage door industry. Garage door technicians typically work directly with homeowners or as sub-contractors on a larger project (such as a residential construction site). To get these jobs, you'll have to carefully cultivate relationships within the real estate world and with garage door manufacturers who can give you exclusive rights to sell or repair their products within a specific local area. This can help you keep your income strong and give you strong garage door referrals.
According to PayScale, the average hourly pay for a garage door technician is $17.03. As a self-employed garage door technician, you can likely make more than that. You'll have to find out how to balance competitive pricing for your area while still bringing in the income you want. Set these parameters as part of your business plan.
If you're unsure how well you'd do, see if you can talk to a garage contractor or two and ask if they'd need garage door sales and installation help. Areas with healthy amounts of new home construction may already have strong demand for a new garage door business.
Garage Door Sales and Installation Skills
People familiar with the basics of construction and who already know garage doors will probably have an advantage over those completely new to the field. Learn everything you can when you make your attempt to break in. You may even wish to consider investing in a training program to gain some work experience in the field.
Break into the industry with these skills and experiences:
- Construction and contracting basics: You should know a bit about how homes and businesses are constructed and how construction projects are completed. Learn about residential contracting businesses and the way they work with sub-contractors and the way they delegate projects.
- Networking skills: Networking skill will help, as not all of your new leads for service will come directly from homeowners. Other professionals and businesses within the real estate and construction world will function as great sources of the kind of steady, ongoing work you need to sustain your business.
- Tools and construction skills: Of course, you'll absolutely need to know how to use basic construction tools. Without these skills, it'll be quite difficult to get your work done!
- Strength and a work ethic: You should have the ability and the willingness to lift garage door components, climb ladders, and do whatever other basic tasks make up part of a typical workday. You need to stay motivated to get some difficult work done. Garage door installation and service is, to an extent, a physical job.
- Ability to follow instructions: New garage doors are shipped with installation information. Even if you already have an idea of how to install the door, you should double-check the instructions to make sure you don't overlook any important details.
- Customer service and negotiation: You have to be able to stick up for yourself and your business while also serving customers and providing them with everything they need. This isn't always easy to do. It often requires balancing different priorities and good people skills.
With the right skills, you'll increase your likelihood of success. Invest in yourself and build your skillset as much as possible.
Starting Your Business
Before you get started, consider taking these steps:
- Make a business plan: Outline your goals, the steps you'll take to achieve them, and what makes you uniquely prepared to build your garage door business.
- Plan your marketing: Online and offline, you'll need ways for homeowners and contractors to find you.
- Reach out to other pros: Connect with contractors, real estate agents, hardware stores, big box retailers who carry garage doors, residential painters, and others who can send you referrals. Also, seek out opportunities to connect with garage door manufacturers. Think about why someone might need service, repairs, or replacements and go find potential referrals and new customers.
- Get licenses, registrations, and insurance: Find out your local and state requirements for creating a new business in the construction industry. Insurance is also a must to protect your business and reduce your liability risk.
- Get references: Ask your first few customers for testimonials, as well as their permission to share their positive feedback online.
Your New Garage Door Business
As you grow your business, it's important to get organized. Take care of the business side of your operations and ensure you start out prepared for the invoicing, contracts, and scheduling side of garage door work (much of which you can do with the help of some scheduling software).
Good luck with your new business!
